Comments | doublel27: The Streets of Heaven Are Far Too Crowded

doublel27

The Streets of Heaven Are Far Too Crowded

Mar 02, 2008 14:06

I'm not sure how many people have heard of this, but as this has only come to my attention recently and I'm usually up on this sort of news, I thought I'd spread this around as the news media has not been covering it. I may not hit a lot of bloggers, but I thought it was important to share ( Read more... )

equal rights, lgbt, queer, rl, larwrence king

Comments 8

michan17 March 2 2008, 19:58:07 UTC

Yeah. Oxnard, the city he was in, is right next to my city. My mom used to work over there. It Did make our news of course, so I guess I never really noticed that it wasn't picked up anywhere else.

Totally messed up.

In the school's defense: I'm not sure that an LGBTQ acceptance program would have helped a ton in this case. The shooter was a really messed up kid - his father had recently come out of prison and before and after his jailbird days, he beat the shit out of his son. I mean, the kid had issues.

That's not to take away from the fact that I'm from a fairly homophobic area in general and acceptance programs would be nice and a major step. I'm just not sure it could've saved Lawrence King.

doublel27 March 2 2008, 20:27:24 UTC

It's not so much if we could have saved Lawrence King from this one kid. It's the...it's the real lack of action that bothers me and the lack of media attention. They can't save everyone, and I'm sure there was more to it than just that he was gay when it comes to bringing a gun in. Quote/Unquote normal kids don't do that. But a lot of times schools don't take complaints seriously and don't make action. Maybe it couldn't have saved Lawrence but it could have made a difference.

*shrugs* I'm also from an intolerant/homophobic area and I know that all the programs in the world can't save everyone, but they can at least be a progress towards change. And if nothing else, the death of Lawrence King should be a catalyst for such action but I'm not sure if it will be.

michan17 March 2 2008, 21:13:48 UTC

Yeah. It's really fucked up, I agree. And if any schools should be taking action, it's the Oxnard School District. Just as far as taking threats seriously in general. When me and my friends got the calls from our parents and friends and stuff (since we're not nearby anymore) and our first thought when they said "school shooting" was, "Well...it is Oxnard."

Not a good sign.

It should be a catalyst for change, you're right. Because it was totally horrific and completely fucked up. But...I don't think much will change there. It might help make change in other places, but I don't see OUSD or VUSD making any changes.

doublel27 March 2 2008, 21:24:41 UTC

And that's, I think, the most frustrating thing. At least it is for me. I mean if it had been a black student who had been shot, or if he had been shot for being Asian, it would have gotten a lot more attention/backlash rather than just be dusted under the rug as it has been now.

I just want to bring what little extra attention to it here because...I think the situation deserves it.

spirit0fstlouis March 2 2008, 20:19:36 UTC

I don't think it made the news up here at all. God, that's so horrible. >.< I'm still appalled by the amount of hate and intolerance in the world. It boggles my mind. Sadly, I don't know that we'll ever be able to rid the world of it - there are just too many assholes out there making things suck.

doublel27 March 2 2008, 21:26:16 UTC

*nods* I don't think we'll ever be able to totally remove it from the world, and likely new kinds will be popping up so long as new differences can be found. But the more work we do so that it's not...socially accepted to beat up someone in a high school hallway for being different...at least the world is that much better.

moirariordan March 3 2008, 04:42:06 UTC

That's fucking scary. In a way that's even worse than when someone just takes a machine gun into a classroom - because this was personal. And being that young - yeah, that's really scary. Especially as it didn't get that much news coverage. I'd heard a little about this, but no details, just a mention - on a news scroll, I think.

I really do worry about how gay rights are treated right now. It's almost viewed as unimportant compared to the "real issues" such as Iraq, health care, education, etc. I find it appalling that it can be written off so easily - and that gay marriage is even an issue at all. It's equality, plain and simple. The fact that there are people that are even trying to make a case against it is insane. This is the same fight that we've been fighting since the fucking Civil War. I have no idea why we can't just get the message straight already ( ... )

doublel27 March 3 2008, 21:09:18 UTC

*nods* I think that's what scares me. That it was a personal attack and that it was just sort of swept away as not important.

I wish gay rights were a non-issue and we could focus on the "real issues." Mostly because I feel like gay rights, like all equality issues, don't have two sides to them. It's just simple...people are people and people deserve respect. And I'd like to remind most of the extreme Christian Right that that is the biggest message in the bible.

We should be debating education and health care and the Iraq war because there are SO many different solution options and they really need to be talked about for progress to be made. Gay rights...any rights, really, should be a WTF later on the road. I don't care if you don't like a group of people for whatever your reasons are, that doesn't mean they don't deserve equal rights.

And me too. What people are or what they do in their personal lives does so little harm, it's not reason to deny them their rights across the board.